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I am doing my World Literature essay at the moment. I am comparing the role of mothers in the outsider and like water for chocolate in creating an atmosphere. I am basically arguing that the role of mother in LWFC is more significant. I have done 1300 words on it. Do you guys have any idea as to how I can develop or strengthen my argument further?

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I've only read LWfC. In your argument do you only talk about Mama Elena or do you acknowledge Rosaura and/or Tita?

Now that I think about it, you can argue that it may seem like 'the role of mopther in LWfC is more significant' because Esquivel's using magical realism. Everything's exaggerated. Like the coldness that Mama Elena brings.

Or how Rosaura's first child dies when he is separated from Tita.

So you could tweak your argument and say that while it seems like the role in LWfC seems greater, when you take into account the magical realism, it evens out.

Edit: Removal of the 'why do you want to add more?!'

Alsooooo, adding one hundred words is not very hard! just be a bit more flowery without being overly dramatic. Use a couple of more descriptive phrases. An extra example or two. You don't necessarily need to add more 'meat'

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World Lit is only 1,500 words, though. "The longer the better" may not necessarily hold true all the time, but with WL I'd say it's almost certainly true that "the shorter the worse"! You have to remember that in WL you are marked on both your content AND your question choice. So if you gave yourself too short a topic to get up close to the 1,500 and therefore don't have enough content to make it, it's slightly self-penalising because it's your problem that you ran out of things to say. So if you don't have enough content to score up all the marks, it's kinda a mistake made on your part. With World Lit, it's so short that you might perhaps have chosen a bit of an iffy topic if you can't easily make the 1,500. Definitely if you're not there, try to get there. Even if it perhaps requires a small change to the title - for instance instead of just "for creating an atmosphere", how about "for creating and sustaining" or "for creating and altering" etc. Possibly that would give you your extra 200 words? Or alternatively you could just dig out another point or two. Just be careful it's not adding elaboration as opposed to adding more points. If the content is repetitive or "wishy-washy", it's going to be adding in the stuffing, but no meat, so you may as well not have done it in the first instance.

WL is a midget essay, and getting up to 1,400-1,500 is the best idea. More to the point you want it to be solid content bringing you up there, not just additional examples, unless they add another aspect to your argument. Nobody knows 100% what the examiner will want at the end of the day, but it has to be said, if you've not made the most out of what you have, you're only leaving yourself open to potential problems on that front. Play safe!

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World Lit is only 1,500 words, though. "The longer the better" may not necessarily hold true all the time, but with WL I'd say it's almost certainly true that "the shorter the worse"! You have to remember that in WL you are marked on both your content AND your question choice. So if you gave yourself too short a topic to get up close to the 1,500 and therefore don't have enough content to make it, it's slightly self-penalising because it's your problem that you ran out of things to say. So if you don't have enough content to score up all the marks, it's kinda a mistake made on your part. With World Lit, it's so short that you might perhaps have chosen a bit of an iffy topic if you can't easily make the 1,500. Definitely if you're not there, try to get there. Even if it perhaps requires a small change to the title - for instance instead of just "for creating an atmosphere", how about "for creating and sustaining" or "for creating and altering" etc. Possibly that would give you your extra 200 words? Or alternatively you could just dig out another point or two. Just be careful it's not adding elaboration as opposed to adding more points. If the content is repetitive or "wishy-washy", it's going to be adding in the stuffing, but no meat, so you may as well not have done it in the first instance.

WL is a midget essay, and getting up to 1,400-1,500 is the best idea. More to the point you want it to be solid content bringing you up there, not just additional examples, unless they add another aspect to your argument. Nobody knows 100% what the examiner will want at the end of the day, but it has to be said, if you've not made the most out of what you have, you're only leaving yourself open to potential problems on that front. Play safe!

Well, you can take so narrow topics that you've written everything there is to write in 1100 words. A 1400-topic is not necessarily better than a 1050-topic, as long as you've fulfilled the potential of the topic.

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Well, you can take so narrow topics that you've written everything there is to write in 1100 words. A 1400-topic is not necessarily better than a 1050-topic, as long as you've fulfilled the potential of the topic.

Unless I'm misremembering you are also marked on topic selection, though, and picking a topic inappropriate for the word limit seems a little self-destructive. I don't think it's necessarily true always, but I'd consider it taking a risk to pick a topic which didn't give you enough to write about, as you're less likely to score well. Personal choice, I guess, but I don't think I'd ever be brave enough not to go for the upper end of something mentioned in the marking criteria - I figure you never know how the examiners intend to view it. If they do feel like penalising you for picking too small a topic, you'd certainly be kicking yourself afterwards. Well, I would!

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Well, you can take so narrow topics that you've written everything there is to write in 1100 words. A 1400-topic is not necessarily better than a 1050-topic, as long as you've fulfilled the potential of the topic.

Unless I'm misremembering you are also marked on topic selection, though, and picking a topic inappropriate for the word limit seems a little self-destructive. I don't think it's necessarily true always, but I'd consider it taking a risk to pick a topic which didn't give you enough to write about, as you're less likely to score well. Personal choice, I guess, but I don't think I'd ever be brave enough not to go for the upper end of something mentioned in the marking criteria - I figure you never know how the examiners intend to view it. If they do feel like penalising you for picking too small a topic, you'd certainly be kicking yourself afterwards. Well, I would!

If the WL is well written and within the word limit, they can't penalise you for having a narrow topic.